THE "UNDERGROUND RAILROAD " FOR FUGITIVE SLAVES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2363, 8 June 1899, Page 56

THE " UNDERGROUND RAILROAD " FOR FUGITIVE SLAVES.

Professor Wilbur H. Siebert, of the Ohio ' State University, has published a volume ' (says the Literary Digest, U.S.) dealing , with the " underground " routes by which, previous to the wai, fugitive slaves were, conveyed to Canada and the free States. ! This underground system, Professor Sieberfc thinks, did even more than "Uncle Tom's Cabin " to bring on the war. From 1840 to 1860 hundreds and thousands of slaves annually were induced to flee from their masters. Professo: Siebert estimates that more than 5000 persont were employed in operating the underground system, and that nearly half a million slaves obtained freedom by its means. Nearly all the best-known Abolitionists were in the scheme, and in Re Chester, SjTacuse, Providence, Boston, ' Buffalo, Philadelphia, and other cities regu- ' t lar- leagues and Vigilance committees were organised foi the work. Yet the system nevei developed into a general organisation. Congress had passed the most rigid fugitive slave laws, which, 99 times, out of 100, were most ingeniously evaded. As early as 1850, when a Southern planter lost his negroes through the underground route, he mado but little effort to recover them. In most of the free Stales some effort was made by the authorities to restore the fugitives, but It was generally half-hearted, and the Abolitionist went about his work with divine eiithusiasm. I

The chief interest in Professo. Siebert's books is the daring of the underground operators and their methods. A certain class of these bold characters stealthily invaded the Southern States constantly and induced negroes to flee with them. The raids of John Brown are>too well known to give Professoi Siebert's account of them, but there were othei men whose energy was as great as Brown's and whose work was far more effective. Notable among this number was Levi Coffin, who was called the president of the underground railroad. Coffin was a Quaker, as a great many of these operators were. He was a native of North Carolina, and was an effective agent before he left his native State foi a residence in OhiOj, He and his wife are said to have aided more than 3000 slaves in their flight. Coffin kept a regular station for the reception of fugitives at Cincinnati. Coffin did not, however, make visits to the South to do his work. He only harboured and zonveyed the fugitives after they reached iiis hands. \ Calvin Fairbanks, a resident of Virginia, was oik of the most active agents, but a man of bad character. To his Southern neighbours he appeared to be in favoui of slavery, bub was at heart a strong Aboli- j tionist. He was, perhaps, the most ingenious agent in the service. In speaking of his devices, he said:— ".Forty-seven slaves I guided toward" the North Star, in violation of the State codes of Virginia and Ken- j tucky. I piloted them through the forest, mostly by night— f&rls,. fair and white, l

dressed as ladies, men and boys as gentlemen o-* servants ; men in women's clothes ; boys dressed as girls and girls as boys ; on foot or on horseback, in buggies, carriages, common waggons, in and under loads of hay, straw, furniture, boxes, and. bags; crossing the Jordan of the slave, swimming or wading chin deep ; or in boats or skiffs, on rafts, md often on a pine log. And I never suffered one to be recaptured." But Fairbanks himself was put in prison m Louisville for taking off a mulatto woman. He was tried in 1853, convicted, and sentenced to the penitentiary for 15 years. While there he reports that he received 39,000 lashes altogether. In 1864 he was pardoned by a singular occurrence. President Lincoln commanded General Speed S. Fry to enrol all the negroes in Kentucky as soldiers. Thomas E. Bramlitle, the Governor of Jie State, refused to allow General Fry to execute the order. Lincoln summoned Governor Bramlitte to Washington to answer charges. The Lieu-tcrant-Governor, Richard T. Jacob, a strong Abolitionist, became acting Governor. On his first day m office the new executive was approached by General Fry. who said : " Governor, the President, thinks it would be well to make this Fairbanks day." On the following morning Fairbanks was pardoned.

Seth Concklin, of Philadelphia, was another noted character who invaded the South tc take slaves away. Like John Brown, he lost his life in the business. While taking a family of slaves from Alabama North, they were all arrested at Vincer.nes, Ind., and sent back South. Concklin, while crossing the Cumberland, was probably murdered -on the boat and thrown into the rivei. One of the remarkable slave abductors was Harriet Tubman, a negro woman. She was well known to most of the great anti-slavery agitators. Governor William H. Seward said of her : " I have known her long, and a nobler, higher spirit or a truer seldom dwells in a human form.'' John Brown introduced he* to Wendell Phillips in Boston, saying : '' I bring you one of the best and bravest persons on the continent — General Tubman as we call her." Slie was a welcome guest in the homes of Emeison, the Olcotts, the Whitneys, and the Brooks families. She was known as Moses. She made 19 trips into the South and emancipated over 300 slaves. Although she had assistance, she relied mainly on herself to accomplish her work. After she had saved up enough money from her own w-iges she would go South, corral her fugitives at some appointed place, and start North on Saturday night, so as to get some distance before she could be advertised. When posters were put up advertising her caravan, she would hire negioes to follow along and tear them down. If she were closely pursued, she would take a tiain with her companions and start South so as co allay suspicion. She knew where friends could be found. If at any stage of the journey she were compelled to leave he 1 * companions and forage for supplies, she would disclose herself on her return through the strains of a favourite little song : — Dark and thorny is the pathway "Where de pilgrim makes his way; But beyond this vale of sorrow Lie de fields of endless day. If any one of her party became fainthearted and wanted to turn back, she would threaten to use her revolver, and sometimes did use it, declaring : " Dead niggers tell no tales ; you go on or die." Once apprehending danger on the route she had chosen, she decided to change her course by wading an -unknown river in March. She walked boldly in and made her people follow her. In this way she escaped the officers waiting foi her.